Natural Selection
by Titanium Heartache
Summary: AU. Darcy Lewis is a normal kid until she is approached by Loki, the Norse God of Mischief. Then she's thrust into an underground world where kids just like her are the gods' chosen ones. Now she has to deal with new powers granted to her by her patron god, a slew of attacking monsters, and underlying dissent that threatens to dislodge the secret society.


**_A/N: Guess what? I'm obsessed with the Avengers, especially Loki (because he's awesome). And GG made me read the Percy Jackson series; I loved that too. The logical conclusion to express my fondness of these two works was to make a crossover. And thus this was born. Woo hoo!_**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Thor or anything related to them. I also do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Huzzah.**_

_**Chapter One**_  
_**Chosen**_

It was a perfectly normal school day. I was simultaneously stuffing things into my already overstuffed purple backpack and texting my friends. After a while, I gave up on trying to fit all my stuff into my backpack and just dragged the thing out of school, resolving to get the rest of the stuff the next day. I popped my headphones in my ears and played my newly downloaded songs at full blast as I hurried out of the building as best I could with a monster clinging to my back. I shoved my way through the doors of the school, taking a breath of the crisp, fall air. As the chill hit me, I paused for a moment to pull my hat, a pretty average black knit cap, onto my head and crammed my mittens, fingerless black knit ones, onto my fingers. I adjusted my silver puffy jacket over my green sweatshirt. I smiled up at the cloudy sky, but my momentary bliss was shattered as a snowball hit me in the face. I shook my head to clear the cold, powdery substance from my face, spitting my plain, dark brown hair out of my mouth. I looked around to glare at the offender, my closest friend ever, Jane.

Jane and I had always been abnormally close. Her parents had died in a car crash when she was younger, and she lived with a close family friend, Erik Selvig. We'd met in first grade, and we've been super close ever since. It had even gotten to the point where she called my parents 'mom' and 'dad'. But, at the beginning of the year, something had changed. She and Erik had gone on a trip to Norway for some reason or another, and when she returned, she was different. I didn't know exactly what it was, but it seemed like she was...more, somehow. She'd always stood up for herself and me, but now she seemed to crackle with a certain electricity. And she was always disappearing, sometimes with another kid.

There was a substantially large group of kids in our school that were a bit...off, and Jane seemed to have joined them. They talked about gods like they were real, and were always disappearing with each other and returning with cuts and bruises, like they got into fights. I, like most sensible people, avoid them, because it's like they're a gang or something. The weird thing was that they'd all been normal kids like myself, but they'd come back to school after a vacation or other random disappearance and, like Jane, seemed to have become more than they were before. They seemed...powerful, somehow; they appeared to have hidden energy they hadn't had before. There was something seriously wrong with them, but Jane, who had always been sensible and who'd avoided them before, had seemed to join them. Some days, like today, she hung out with me and our other friends like nothing had happened, but then she'd seem to catch the eye of one of them, and they'd get up and disappear together. They'd come back in under a few minutes or even hours later, covered with cuts and bruises.

I didn't know what to think. Were they fighting in a gang or were they engaging in other activities? The weird thing was that she disappeared with both boys and girls. I knew Jane was straight, but I also didn't want to think she'd randomly joined a gang.

I was jolted out of my thoughts as Jane slung an arm around me and led me to where the rest of our friends were waiting. Jane and I were close, sure, but we had a group of friends that were pretty close to us, too. There was Tony, a genius, who hit on girls all the time and joked around. There was Steve, an old-fashioned gentleman who seemed like he belonged in the World War II era rather than modern day America. There was Bruce, a genius like Tony with some anger issues. Then there was Clint and Natasha. Clint was pretty smart and an amazing archer, and a really nice guy, but things were awkward between us right now. I'd dated him for a while, but it hadn't worked out, and he was pretty mad at me. I wasn't sure why. He was dating Natasha now, a pretty nice girl who'd make a great secret agent. She wasn't really our friend and had only joined our group because she was dating Clint. It was great to have her around, though, especially during snowball fights. She was beast with a snowball.

As a group we walked in the direction of Isabella's Diner, our usual after-school hangout, talking about random things, but, as we neared the diner, we saw Percy. He was a tall, thin kid with black hair and sea-green eyes. He wore an orange T-shirt with a picture of the ocean on it, a really weird thing to wear in the late fall. He seemed to be one of the heads of the gang-like kids, so we tended to steer clear of him. But, instead of falling silent and walking awkwardly past him like the rest of us, Jane caught his eye and walked up to him. Then, to the utmost surprise of myself and my friends, they turned and walked into a nearby alley.

I was getting sick of this.

Before I could change my mind, I took off my ginormous backpack and shoved it into the arms of Tony, who was closest. At his indignant look, I said, "I'm going after her." Then, not daring to look back for fear I would loose my nerve, I pulled my tazer, a gift from my mother, out of my pocket and clutched it in my hand as I entered the alley after my friend.

The alley was one of those long, dark alleys, the kind they use in horror shows where the killer hides in the shadows and jumps out at the helpless victim. I wasn't helpless, but I was still pretty damn scared.

The alley was long, but there were no other exits or entrances along its straight path other than the mouth where I'd gone in. So, when I reached the dumpster at the end without seeing any sign of Jane or Percy, I was confused. Walls of windowless buildings rose up on either side of me. The sides were slick, without handholds, so the only way they could have disappeared other than slipping around me would have been to go into the dumpster. I had no idea why they would have done that, but I checked anyway. The only thing I found was a bunch if rotting food and other disgusting things I didn't care to identify. With a sigh of confusion, I turned away and walked back up the alley, eyes downcast.

I walked right into someone. I froze and took a few steps, but a strong hand reached out and grabbed me. The pale glow of a dying light somewhere above us cast a shadowy glow on the man. He was tall and slim, with black hair he'd slicked back and emerald eyes. He wore a black suit and a green tie. His thin face was twisted in a creepy grin. He reached out with a free hand and gently cupped my jaw. That's when I'd had enough of this weirdness. I whipped out my tazer, fully intending to zap him and make a run for it, but his hand that had been touching my face flew faster than my eyes could follow and grabbed hold of my tazer. He frowned slightly and let go, and then the tazer turned into an apple.

I dropped it with a shriek and it rolled away.

"Who the hell are you?!" I squeaked, trying to dislodge myself from his grip, but to no avail.

"Hmm," he said thoughtfully in a voice like silk. "You have great potential, but it appears you haven't been chosen yet."

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but can you please let go of me? My dad's a lawyer!" I gasped. That was a lie, but he didn't know that, right?

Wrong. "Miss Lewis, your father is not a lawyer. I would advise you to not try to lie to me again."

Crap, he knew me. "Look, mister, I don't know who you are or how you know me, but please let me go."

He chuckled, and I punched him. Or tried to, anyway. He grabbed by hand with ease and looked down at me sternly, but said nothing.

Then he somehow grabbed both of my hands without letting go of me and blinked slowly at me, ignoring my struggle. A green glow spread from him, down to our connected arms, and into my heart. I let out a sharp gasp as I felt power flowing through my whole being, and then I passed out.


End file.
